The Front Row: Penguins have the look of champions

They’re good, they know they’re good, and they know you know they’re good.

Such confidence emanates from the Pittsburgh Penguins, a team the Blue Jackets can aim to be upon growing up.

Pittsburgh is a gilded bunch, stock full of snipers, owners of last season’s Stanley Cup, and now one win away from sweeping the Jackets in their first-round playoff series. Game 4 is Tuesday night at Nationwide Arena.

For all their scintillating skill – led by stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin – and depth, it’s their air of unflappability that has separated the Penguins from the upstart, would-be-king Jackets.

Never was Pittsburgh’s iron demeanor more apparent than in the first 6:10 of Game 3 when the Penguins fell behind 3-1 in raucous Nationwide Arena before rallying for a 5-4 overtime victory and 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.

A lesser team would have wilted as the building quaked and cannon fired after the desperate Jackets jumped the visitors in the game’s opening minutes.

Not the Penguins, who have won two of their four Stanley Cup championships since 2009.

"We talk about the first 10 minutes," Malkin said. "We talk a lot before the game. First shift they score. Five minutes (later), they score. But we know it's the playoffs. You score one goal and it changes the momentum."

Marc-Andre Fleury personified Pittsburgh’s unshakable demeanor.

The Penguins goaltender was under fire from the get-go, allowing Cam Atkinson to score 11 seconds into the game, another nearly 5 minutes later, followed by a Zach Werenski power-play goal to make it 3-1.

At that point, the Jackets had more goal in six minutes than they totaled in two losses over the weekend in Pittsburgh.

And Fleury yawned.

"I was fine," Fleury said. "I’m sure it wasn’t the start I wanted or anybody wants, but I was very relaxed. I felt comfortable and knew that we would come back."

Spoken like a man who has been in net for 103 playoff games, 92 of them starts, 56 victories. Fleury himself has won as many Stanley Cups as the Jackets have won playoff games in their history.

"This team has been through a lot in the past, and in this season," Fleury said. "We’ve come back in games. Nobody panics."

Chief among the cool cats is Crosby.

Since June 2016, he’s won his second Stanley Cup and the Conn Smythe Trohpy, led Canada to the World Cup of Hockey championship and been named the tournament’s MVP, and added the Rocket Richard trophy this month. He’s also won Olympic gold.

An early 3-1 deficit on the road wasn’t going to bother the world’s best player.

"You know it’s coming," Crosby said of the Jackets’ quick start. "We felt like even after that first 10 minutes we did a lot of good things. We had chances to even up the game (in the first period), but it didn’t happen.

"That was probably one of our better first periods even though the score wasn’t an indication of it. We just had to stay with it, keep playing our game, and generate things. We knew we had some time left. It was just a matter of taking advantage of some of our chances as the game went on."

Pittsburgh did so, and in ironic fashion it was rookie Jake Guentzel who led the way with a hat trick, including the game-winner at 13:10 of OT off a nifty pass from Crosby along the wall.

"We were trying to create some separation," Crosby said. "They play pretty tight D. I was trying to create a little bit of room so I could lift my head up and make a play.

"Sometimes there’s no play there and I’m just trying to hold onto it for possession. There, I was able to at least get my head up for a quick second and find Jake."

And in that flash it was all over.

The champions had weathered the storm, head up, eyes on the prize.

"There were so many things to like about our game," Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. "Some of the goals didn't go our way early on, but we responded the right way. That's such an important aspect of our group is our ability to respond and act the right way.

"The game's not always going to go your way out there. It's the nature of the sport. What's most important is how we react. We were challenged with that, and I thought our guys did a terrific job."

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Not much in sports can beat the Stanely Cup playoffs, especially overtime.

Sunday’s game featured players taking pucks off the face, blood on the ice, and enough tension in OT to make Alfred Hitchcock proud.

In the end, only bitterness remained for the Jackets.

Michael Arace, who has covered the NHL for nearly 30 years, has seen his share of playoff hockey. Check out his column about Game 3 in today’s Dispatch.

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How close were the Jackets to winning on Sunday and cutting the series deficit to 2-1?

Inches.

That’s what Brandon Dubinsky figures in light of his point-blank shot in OT smashing into the mask of Fleury and caroming away no good.

"He got me right between the eyes," Fleury said. "I’d say I had a good look at it. I came across (the crease) and I didn’t have to react or anything to save it. He hit me right there."

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No one should ever question the toughness of Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski.

The superb rookie was struck in the face on a second-period shot by Pittsburgh’s Phil Kessel, and fell prone, bleeding on the ice.

Werenski skated off, received treatment, and returned to play in the third period despite a horrible laceration under his right eye.

Eventually Werenski could no longer see out of the eye because of increased swelling, and he wasn’t able to play during the overtime period.

Playoff hockey... pic.twitter.com/4GNoLYVECu

— Zach Werenski (@ZachWerenski) April 17, 2017

Penguins center Nick Bonino also took a puck to the face Sunday while blocking a shot in the first period.

Bonino immediately skated off and headed to the Pittsburgh locker room for treatment. He returned before the first period was over and played the rest of the game (totaling 17 minutes) while wearing a clear mask for protection.

"I just wanted to make sure there was no head stuff going on," said Bonino, a gash under his right eye. "But it hurt. It hurt a lot. I came right off, and they took care of me back there. We got that chin strap on pretty quickly, and I was just able to go out, mainly just tried to get through the first (period) to make sure I was OK, and then we took it from there."

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Sunday was another difficult game for Jackets goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.

Bob fought the puck most of the night in seeing his goals against average (3.49) and save percentage (.897) drop again in his three series starts.

Tom Reed wrote about Bobrovsky, who was one of the league’s best goaltenders in the regular season, for today’s Dispatch.

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Crew SC has done this season what the Blue Jackets could do last night: Hold a lead.

Last year, the Crew bedeviled its fans with by giving up late goals, but the club has fixed the problem so far seven games into this season while going 4-2-1.

Crew coach Gregg Berhalter told Andrew Erickson of the Dispatch that he’s pleased with the mental toughness shown by his club.

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Bravo: Kathrine Switzer, 70, will run the Boston Marathon today, 50 years after she became the first woman to officially enter the famous race as a Syracuse journalism student.

She’ll be wearing the same number she wore in the 1967 marathon.

Brick: Morgan Burke, who made enough money off college athletics to recently retire as Purdue athletic director, said in a class-action antitrust lawsuit filing that college athletes shouldn’t receive any more benefits than currently allowed under NCAA rules.

33: The number of points Isaiah Thomas scored for the Boston Celtics one day after the death of his sister, Chyna Thomas, in a one-car crash in their home state of Washington. She was 22.

Thomas’ emotional performance wasn’t enough to keep Boston from losing 106-102 in a first-round playoff game to the Chicago Bulls.

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Quote of the day

Jackets center Brandon Dubinsky after the 5-4 loss to Pittsburgh created an 0-3 hole in the best-of-seven series against the Penguins:

"It hurts, no doubt about it. We needed this one. It’s one we needed and unfortunately we didn’t get it done. Now, we’re in a situation where it’s do or die. We can pout and hang our heads or come to work tomorrow and get ready for another game."

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Look back: On this day in 1976, Philadelphia third baseman Mike Schmidt hit four consecutive home run to help the Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs 18-16 in 10 innings at Wrigley Field.

Philadelphia trailed 12-1, but Schmidt’s heroics led the biggest comeback in National League history.

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